Such a Girl!

This layout was done with my ultra-girlie rock-star DD in mind. It actually started with the flower. I got up early Saturday morning while I was on retreat, got my coffee, sat down at my table, and looked at my supplies. For some reason I felt like making a flower, so I did. And then, of course I needed something to do with it. The page evolved from there. I didn't have any photos with me that fit the theme, but it will feature black-and-white pics.

The three 'buttons' on page 2 are just circles of CS stacked, sanded, and embossed with Iridescent Ice. The middle button also has some Dazzling Diamonds on it. Not thrilled with how that one turned out, but obviously used it anyway.

What I love most about the page is the gloss embossing along the top. It balances the bold stripe along the bottom, and looks really cool in person. (The photo doesn't begin to do it justice.) I'll probably be doing that more--embossing my base papers. Love the textural effect.

Here's a detail pic of that flower. If it looks familiar, you've been paying attention! Whoo! It's a version of the flower I did for my Thanks-a-Daisy card (short tutorial on that post).
Ingredients (all SU! except where noted):
Designer Paper: Flowers For You (retired)
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, So Saffron
Stamp: from Baroque Motifs
Ink: Versamark, Pink Passion, Old Olive
Punches: Large Oval, Photo Corners, 3/4" Circle, Scallop Edge, Curly Label
Other: Markers, sponge wedges, daubers, clear embossing powder, Iridescent Ice embossing powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter
NON SU: Cricut to cut the title

And finally, here's a sketch for the page.



Thanks for visiting!

I Love Lucy

It's the crud time of year, I guess. First my DD was sick, and now DS is home sick. Nothing like cleaning up after sick kids to squash the creative mojo. Ah, the joys of motherhood.

Since I haven't even had the gumption or energy to even unpack my stuff from retreat, let alone USE it, I'll share one of the layouts I got done while I was there. Check it out:

It's dedicated to our border collie (betcha can't guess what her name is!). She's moody and silly and sweet, just like Ms. Ball's character (though minus the red hair, false eyelashes, and lipstick).

Patterned paper is from the Modern Milan slab by Me & My BIG Ideas. I used my Base Camp Cricut cartridge for the letters, hand-cut the heart. Circle, Round Tab, and Scallop Edge punches are from SU! Baja Breeze, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Whisper White cardstock also from SU!

Thanks for visiting!

On retreat

Just thought I'd post a quick 'Hello' while I get a wireless signal. I'm currently sitting in a room with nine other ladies; Cricuts are humming, the smell of Un-du is making us a little loopy, the Eagles Reunion 1 tour plays on the television, and we are all industriously working to put these piles of photos into scrapbook pages.

I'll post a couple of photos on Monday of what I've been working on.

Thanks for visiting!

Thanks-a-Daisy

Using up more scraps! This one is for today's demo challenge as SCS. Part of that challenge was NOT to use white or vanilla, which I found remarkably difficult.
What's really neat about these petals is that you can use your Large Oval, Wide Oval, or Round Tab punch to make them! You'll get slightly different petal shapes with each, so choose your favorite.

Ingredients (all SU!):
Paper: Regal Rose, So Saffron, Bashful Blue, Barely Banana, Urban Garden
Stamp: from Short & Sweet set
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Pink Passion, So Saffron, Kiwi Kiss, Creamy Caramel
Punches: Large Oval, 1" Circle
Other: Pretty in Pink 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, antique brass brads, sponge daubers, stampin' sponge wedge

Here's how to make the petals:
--Cut a strip of cardstock about an inch wide and score a line lengthwise down the center. Fold away from the score. This will create a little bump on the inside of the fold, which will resemble the center rib in a daisy petal when you're done.
--Put the folded cardstock in your punch with the folded edge inside the punch. If using an oval punch, line up the fold ABOVE the half-way point, and punch!

It's okay if your petals are slightly different sizes--that adds to the organic realism!



Thanks for visiting!

I'm a featured project! And a couple of reminders...

Whoooo! I just noticed that my Vase of Flowers is the SUB gallery featured project this week at Splitcoast Stampers! Wow! That's too cool! Unfortunately you can't see it if you don't have access to the demo forums there, so to the right is a screen shot of the Featured Upload portion of the SU galleries page. I've been a member there more than three years and this is the first time I've had this honor. Whoo!

While I'm here, how about a couple of quick reminders?

• Deadline to order the February Scrapbook Class-in-a-Kit is technically tomorrow, but I'll be packing for retreat and then GOING on retreat (same place as last time, I'm so excited!), so if your order is in my Inbox by the time I get home on Sunday, you'll be fine.
• Deadline for the paper share is Sunday.

Okay, I'd better get this posted while I can. We're iced in and my Internet connection is flickering in and out.

I hope you are all staying warm! Thanks for visiting!

A Tulip (or two) For You

I was chatting online with my youngest sister, Erin, on Saturday about papercrafty-type stuff (she used to be a demo, too), and she mentioned that she never uses black cardstock. And that got me thinking... Hmmm... I don't use black much either. I have a whole pack, but I don't remember when or why I purchased it. So I sat down to stamp, determined to include black in my design. And this is what resulted.

Actually, I was also intent on using the tulip, too. I'd made it last week, and still had yet to do anything with it. I checked a flower-meaning site and found that tulips are general purpose flowers. They don't really mean anything in particular, just make people smile. Hence the generic 'For You' sentiment.

I managed to use a single stamp set (Fresh Cuts) for the whole card. Five stamps come in this set, might as well use them together, right? I used three of the five.

Ingredients (all SU!):
Stamps: Fresh Cuts
Paper: Kiwi Kiss, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Basic Black, More Mustard, Very Vanilla, Urban Garden
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Orchid Opulence, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa, Basic Black
Punches: Wide Oval, Large Oval, Small Oval, Tag Corner
Other: Top Note die, Chocolate Chip marker, pewter jumbo eyelent and mini brad, sponge daubers, 5/8" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon

And just because I know you'll appreciate it, here's a mini tutorial on how I made the tulip.

What you'll need:

• Wide Oval punch
• Large Oval punch
• Small Oval punch
• Scrap of flower-colored cardstock
• Scrap of stem/leaf-colored cardstock
• Sponge daubers and ink for shading

1. Punch one of each oval in your desired bloom color. Here I'm using So Saffron.
2. Put the wide oval punched shape back in the punch as shown, and punch out a DQ-type shape that is about 3/4" at the widest point of the curve.
3. Snip the middle out of the small oval punched shape.
4. Grab a sponge dauber and an ink pad and shade the edges of your pieces as shown. Here I've used Apricot Appeal.
5. Glue your large oval shape onto the wide oval shape, centered in the U made in Step 2, and with the bottom edges even. (You can see that I also added darker 'veining' with Really Rust and an aquapainter)
6. Glue the small oval 'ears' to the back, centered in the V's created by the two larger oval shapes.
7. Cut a straight stem and two leaves from your green cardstock (I'm using Kiwi Kiss). My stem is 1/4" by 3" (or thereabouts). For my leaves, I cut a 2"x3" rectangle, folded it in half length-wise, and cut a long curve through both layers first on one side, then the other.
8. Use a sticky note (cut a hint of a curve on the sticky side) to shield half of a leaf so you can ink the other. Repeat with the other leaf, and add shading to the stem.
9. Assemble your tulip.
Tadaaaa.....!


Here's a super-simple alternate tulip. Not as 'WOW' as the tulip above, but still a tulip. I plan to do a dozen of these along the bottom of a two-page scrapbook layout. Basically, you take a Wide Oval shape and punch off the top with your Scallop Edge punch as shown below. Easy!


Thanks for visiting!

Love You Lilies

My son used to love origami, so we would sit for hours making swans and frogs and cups. It's a terribly good use for a small square piece of paper! The flowers on this card are inspired by those paper-folding sessions. It's SO easy, I'm sure someone else has done it before--essentially it's just the start of a balloon fold on a scallop square punched from cardstock. I've put together a photo tutorial for you--find it at the end of this post.

Here are the card details:

Ingredients (all SU!):
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Whisper White, Bella Rose
Stamp: grass from Inspired by Nature
Ink: Apricot Appeal, Bashful Blue, Kiwi Kiss
Punches: Scallop Square (flower), Scallop Circle (sponging clouds), Scallop Edge (edge of layered piece), Small Oval (sentiment), 3/4" Circle (collar thingie on the flowers), Ticket Corner
Other: Sponge dauber, Stampin' Sponge wedge, Regal Rose marker (hand-written sentiment), Styled Silver hardware, 5/8" Old Olive grosgrain ribbon.

And check this out! Love this photo.
Since the flowers are 3-dimensional, I decided to try them in a little vase. Instead of folding down just one 'flap' (step 6 below), I folded down both. Poked a hole in the point, stuck a wire through, and finished each flower with some Garden Green cardstock. Last, I finished the vase with some Celery and Pretty in Pink ribbon.

Now... as promised, here is the short photo tutorial.

1. Punch out a scallop square from your desired bloom color. Here I'm using Pink Pirouette. Ink the center with a contrasting color (I used Apricot Appeal). This will be the inside of your flower. Score carefully from one diagonal corner to the other and from second scallop to second scallop, as shown by the blue lines in the photo. (Scoring is not absolutely necessary, but if done carefully, makes for a crisper finished flower.)
2. Turn the scallop square over and score on the back side as shown.
3. Fold in half diagonally on scored line so that the inked side is out (mountain fold).
4. Open and fold in half on one scored line from Step 2, making a rectangle, with inked side in. Open and fold again on the other scored line from Step 2, again with inked side in (valley folds). Open.
5. Holding the scallop square ink-side up, push diagonal folds up and to the center while collapsing the blossom, as shown.
6. Fold down one 'flap' on the remaining score line created in Step 1. This is the front of your flower, and your flower bloom is now done. All it needs is a stem! As a stem transition (i.e. 'collar thingie'), I cut a 3/4" green circle in half, folded a half into quarters and glued the edge closed to make a cup. Then I glued the pointy tip of the flower into the cup.

Thanks for visiting!

Hanging Heart Pouch

I know, I know. I said I'm not a hearts-and-roses type of person, and I'm not. But sometimes hearts and roses are nearly unavoidable, especially when it's for a challenge to make a heart-shaped pouch and the only two current DSPs you have are Bella Rose and Urban Garden. Since Urban Garden didn't really fit the theme, I went with the Bella Rose.

This idea originated, I believe, with Barb Mullikin. You can see her blog post with details on construction here. I don't have that BigShot die (bummer!), so mine is cut by hand. The up side is mine doesn't have unnecessary score lines to hide.

Here's another view of mine (click on both photos to see a larger version):
The body is cut from Pink Pirouette cardstock. For the embossed dots, I measured and marked very lightly on the inside where I wanted my dots, then squeezed each mark in my Crop-A-Dile (A3 setting with the pin on the outside). I also have the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder that would have worked well, but this was for a SUO challenge (Stampin' Up! Only).

The 'button' in the center of the rosette is made in the faux chipboard style: four 3/4" circles stacked and glued, then edges sanded smooth (exactly like in my paper buttons video except I didn't punch button holes). After everything was nicely rounded, I pressed the entire top surface into my Versamark ink pad, dipped it in clear embossing powder, and embossed. Then I Versamarked, powdered, and embossed again, so it ended up nice and smooth and shiny! (the back side is not embossed--just to clarify).

One note on the detail of the tied-in-the-middle ribbon. It actually looks great, but it was an accident. I cut the first length of ribbon too short to tie through the tabs on both sides and still have a handle with which to hang it. So instead of wasting a piece of ribbon, I cut another short piece and tied them together. For once a goof-up that worked for me, rather than against me!

Of course I had to add some chocolate kisses, too. It doesn't hang well if there's nothing in it.

Ingredients (all SU!):
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette (body & button), Riding Hood Red (side tabs), Kiwi Kiss (leaves), Whisper White (scalloped detail)
Designer paper: Bella Rose
Punches: Scallop Edge, Round Tab, 3/4" Circle, 5-Petal Flower (leaves)
Other: 5/8" Old Olive ribbon, white gel pen, Old Olive marker, Crop-A-Dile

Thanks for visiting!

An SU paper share!

I happen to love all the new papers in the Spring/Summer catalog, and I'm thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice if I could order a quarter sheet of each, just to see? And to use for scrapbooking and cardmaking?

So then I got to thinking that maybe there are others (in the US) who might be interested in participating in a paper share... What's a share? It's where a group of people pool their funds to purchase in bulk. I've done a 13x13 zip bag share twice before, and both worked out very well.

So here's what I'm thinking: I need seven more people (besides me), who would be willing to spend $28 (that's my cost--I'll make no money on this) plus shipping to you to get a quarter sheet of every single piece of Stampin' Up's current Designer Series Paper (not including the Patterns paper) and new Taste of Textiles paper. That's one-hundred-twenty-five (125) 6"x6" pieces of premium paper, 120 of them double sided! That's 245 DIFFERENT patterns, and more than 31 square feet of paper! You could wallpaper a small bedroom!

And here's a bonus! Since this order would be going in under Sale-A-Bration, if you'd like to order just $22 more from the SU catalog (for a total of $50), you can choose a free SAB item, and I'll ship it with your paper. The catalog is available online at my demo website (click Shop Now). You can view a PDF of the Sale-A-Bration brochure here.

Shipping for the paper share pack alone will run about $5.00. If you bump your order up, add $1.00.

Deadline: I want to have those papers in my hands ASAP, so let's see if we can get enough people to participate by Sunday, February 1st.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE: US residents only, please! If you're just wanting the paper pack, please send $33 via PayPal to:

If you'd like to bump up your order, please email me with your additional items and your SAB freebie choice, then I will email you back with your PayPal total.

FOR February SCIAK participants: If you've ordered or plan to order the basic February Scrapbook Class-In-A-Kit, you would need to order only $8.00 more to qualify for SAB, and just pay the SCIAK shipping. Email me!

Thanks for visiting!

New catalog in my hands

Woohoooo! I'm very excited. I got my new Spring-Summer catalog today. I've already trimmed off the spine and comb bound it (so it can lay open flat), and I''m about to make tabs for each category. This baby will accompany me everywhere I go for the next month or so. (The purple strip is because I trimmed the cover too small somehow, and had to extend it. D'oh!)

This catalog release, SU is doing something they've never done before. Starting February 1st and running through April 30th, anyone who places an online order through a demonstrator's business website will receive a free full-size catalog with their order. Which is very cool.

I'll be waiting to put in an order for new stuff until February 1st, when Sale-A-Bration starts, but I've not a long wish list started. Here's what I have after my first pass through the catalog:

STAMPS

• Thoughts & Prayers
• Hoppy for You
• Cute & Cuddly
• Just Jawing (new last catalog, but there's some adorable new paper that matches)
• Family Accessories Too ( new add-on set for All in the Family!)
• Ocean Commotion
• Playful Petals

PAPER (love 'em all!)

• Rockabilly (matches Just Jawing!)
• Parisian Breeze
• Pink Flamingo
• Raspberry Tart
• Tea Party

BIG SHOT STUFF

• Stampin' Up! Butterflies die
• Daisies #2 die
• Stampin' Up! Background Texturz plates

I love Sale-A-Bration because it falls right at TAX REFUND TIME!! I might be able to sneak a couple of these things onto my SCIAK order.... hmmmm... *grin*

Thanks for visiting!

The Charm of Wisteria

HOW COOL IS THIS!??! Click on the photo to see a much larger version! This is an idea that's been rolling around in my head for months, since about a week after I made my Blogiversary Bluebonnet. I figured I could easily flip the basic construction, make it out of different colors, and have wisteria. I mean, Bluebonnets and Wisteria are even in the same subfamily, Faboideae. In making them from punches, it's just a difference in the way they grow, right? Right! It's constructed almost exactly the way my bluebonnet is constructed, just upside down, with a flip of the blossoms about 2/3 down.

I started the blooms yesterday afternoon, since I had a good-size scrap of Lovely Lilac out anyway for yesterday's card but didn't use it. So pulled out some Lavender Lace, Pale Plum and Whisper White, and started punching out 5-petal flowers. This morning I sat and assembled the blooms, then worked on the leaves (fold paper in half, cut a half-leaf-ish shape, run the folded shape through a paper crimper, and open--leaves come in all shapes, so you can't really mess it up). I thought I was using scraps of Certainly Celery and Garden Green, but the GG turned out to be Wild Wasabe (retired). The page base is So Saffron sponged with More Mustard.

I got it all assembled... and then I thought, "I need a bug--a really coooool bug." So I pulled out my large and small oval punches and punched four wings from Tempting Turqoise. I punched four large ovals from vellum, and glued them to the TT pieces. Used a sponge dauber to add Green Galore to the tops of the wings, letting the ink get on the vellum, too. Turned it over and used a Taken with Teal and YoYo Yellow markers to add crazy veining and a bit of yellow to the back side of the top wings. The body started out as a Word Window punch in SaharaSand, but I used my paper snips to cut him a narrow tail. The head started out as a 1/2" circle, but it was too big, so I trimmed it down with scissors. Details added with sponge dauber, white gel pen, and turquoise marker. Here's a close-up of the finished dragonfly:
By the way, the title "English Charm" and the date are not actually there. Again, they're added to the photo in Photoshop. The page on my work table has no title yet. All the actual materials are from Stampin' Up!

Thanks for visiting!

Happy Semi-Traditional Non-Standard Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day cards are not my favorite thing to make, mostly because I am so totally not a hearts-and-roses kind of person. So how about a semi-non-traditional valentine card? (Click on the picture to see a bigger version!)

As far as hearts go, I have to make an exception for the heart in the Always set. It's just beautiful and will probably 'always' be one of my favorites (*snerk*). Here I stamped it on white cardstock with white craft ink, and embossed it with white embossing powder. Then I used sponge daubers and ink pads to tap color over the embossed image, overlapping the colors a smidge so they blended. Added the red accents with marker and cut it out. The rest is just squares and punches.

Ingredients (all SU!):
Stamps: Always, Happy Heart Day
Cardstock: Certainly Celery card base, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
Ink: Craft White, Lovely Lilac, C.Celery, T.Turquoise Markers: L.Lilac, T.Turquoise, Real Red, Night of Navy
Punches: Small Tag, Ticket Corner, Scallop Edge
Other: White embossing powder, sponge daubers, Real Red ribbon, hemp twine

Thanks for visiting!

Gotta Brag Scrapbook Page

I realized this morning that I'd not shared a scrapbook page and sketch for a while. So here is my creation for my 'Bling, Baby!' January scrapbook challenge at SCS. It uses SU's Urban Garden paper pack, and happens to be one of the layouts we'll be doing on the video included in the February SCIAK kit.

You can't see it very well in the photo, but this page is really sparkly! There's iridescent glitter in the center of every flower along the top, as well as on the two larger flower accents.

Please note that the title and photo size thingies aren't really there. I added them to the photo in photoshop as visual placeholders. (I'll add an actual title with my Cricut when I decide what photos I want to put on it!)

INGREDIENTS (all SU!):
Paper: W.White, B.Breeze, K.Kiss, NQ.Navy, Urban Garden DSP
Ink: O.Olive marker and classic pad (leaf details)
Accessories: Five-Petal Flower punch, Photo Corners punch, Curly Label punch, white Signo gel pen, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

And here is the sketch for the page, available only here and in the 'Stampalooza's Scrapbook Challenge' forum at SCS.


Thanks for visiting!

Desk Calendar

I'm certainly getting a lot of mileage out of scraps left over from the latest Scrapbook Class-In-A-Kit papers. This is another project done for challenge at SCS. The challenge was to create a desktop calendar using this tutorial as a jumping-off point. Stamp On This sells the coasters I used, along with some really useful little business-card-size calendars, but I've not ordered any for this year yet, so I had to make and print my own. And I think I like it better. This one has spaces for the days, rather than simply numbers, so you can make small notes or stamp in the days. (The spaces are just the right size to use the soon-retiring Occasions Collection hostess set to mark the days). Scroll to the bottom of this post for a link to a PDF file of the calendar.

Another cool design feature of a big calendar: You can have it slide out for ease of writing. Like this:
By the way, that blue square on the left is a photo mat. You can put a picture of your hamster there!

And here's what it looks like to people on the other side. Somewhat plain, but still interesting.

INGREDIENTS (all SU!):
Paper: B.Breeze, NQ.Navy, K.Kiss, W.White, Urban Garden DSP
Ink: NQ.Navy, K.Kiss, C.Caramel (distressing front medallion)
Stamps: Wanted
Accessories: Ticket Corner punch, Scallop Circle punch, Top Note die, 5/8" O.Olive grosgrain ribbon

And here's a link to a PDF file of the calendar: Stacey's Desk Calendar
Depending on your printer settings, you may need to choose 'Fit to Printer Margins' or 'Reduce to Printer Margins' in the Page Handling section of Adobe Reader's print dialogue box. You can even print all the months on one page from that print dialogue box, by choosing to print two sheets per page.

Thanks for visiting!

Diamond Daisy

I *heart* my punches! Love 'em, love 'em, love 'em! This card was done for the January 14th Diamond Fold card challenge at SCS. I'd never made a diamond fold card before. I tried it first without scoring, and didn't even finish folding it before I decided I needed to take the time to measure and score. SU cardstock is pretty hefty, so it's tough to get the folds crisp and even otherwise. Here's a pic of the same card held flat (Ignore the thumb at the bottom--It's not part of the card!):
Isn't that a cool little daisy? I'm not sure what it is with me and punch flowers lately, but here's how I made this one: First I punched a Scallop Circle from Cameo Coral, found the center point and poked a hole. Then I used my paper snips to cut cone shapes out, snipping in about 1/2". Here's a quick pic:

After inking the petals with Ruby Red and a sponge dauber, I put just a tiny smidge of glue on the outside round part of each petal and dipped in Dazzling Diamonds (glitter). I used the Boho Blossoms punch to punch the 12-pointed flower from Summer Sun, then daubered Pumpkin Pie into the middle and added glitter to the petals. Used the Trio Flower punch and Rose Red cardstock for the smallest flower, dipped it all in DD. I used the Round Tab punch and Green Galore to get the leaf. The stem is just a strip of GG. Stitching details added with O.Olive marker.

INGREDIENTS (all SU!)
Paper: S.Sun, C.Celery, G.Galore, C.Coral, W.White, Rose Red, scrap of Urban Garden DSP
Ink: Ruby Red, P.Pie, B.Breeze (sponged in center of white piece)
Accessories: Scallop Circle punch, Boho Blossoms punch, Trio Flower punch, Round Tab punch, O.Olive marker, D.Diamonds glitter

Thanks for visiting!

A CASE For You

Yet another card for you! I'm trying to catch up on all the challenges and occasions I missed during the holiday chaos. This one is actually a CASE-the-Sale-A-Bration-Catty challenge (Copy And Share... Enthusiastically? ...with Everyone? ...with Evelyn?), and I chose a card on page 2. The flower consists of three scallop square pieces folded at intervals, sponged with Regal Rose, and stacked inside one another.

INGREDIENTS (all SU!):
Paper: Pink Pirouette base & flower, So Saffron Top Note, Kiwi Kiss green bits, Bella Rose brown piece
Ink: Regal Rose for flower shading and to stamp the sentiment
Stamp: from One of a Kind
Accessories: Old Olive 5/8" ribbon, Top Note die, Scallop Square punch (flower), Five-Petal Flower punch (leaves and sepals), O.Olive marker (leaf and sepal details), sponge dauber, hemp twine

Thanks for visiting!

Punched Posy Tutorial

I thought I'd put together a quick tutorial on how to make the cute punched posy from this card. Here's what you'll need:

• Five-Petal Flower punch (punch two from your flower color and one from your leaf color)
• 3/4" Circle punch (punch one from your flower center color)
• Ink pads & sponge daubers for shading
• Markers for details
• Scissors
• Liquid glue
• Straight-edge and scoring tool

Now here's step-by-step instructions (click on photos to see larger):

1. Punch one five-petal flower from your leaf color and trim as shown (I'm using Kiwi Kiss).
2. Punch two five-petal flowers from your flower color and trim ONE of them as shown (I'm using Blush Blossom).
3. Punch one 3/4" circle from your flower center color and trim as shown (I'm using So Saffron).
4. Grab a sponge dauber and an ink pad in a darker color than your flower color (I'm using Cameo Coral). Daub ink on three adjacent petals on the full punched piece, making it darker toward the center and leaving the tips of each petal uninked. Do the same for both petals of the cut piece.


5. With your marker in the same (or similar) color as your 'daubed' color, add details to each petal.
6. On your full punched piece, you're going to fold the two uninked petals down over the inked petals. To do this, you can use a straight edge and scoring tool to very carefully score from outside 'v' to outside 'v' and fold the top, uninked part down.
7. Unfold the flower again and turn the piece over to the back side. Use your sponge daubers and marker to add shading and details to the two petals that will fold down. On this side, I added a bit of So Saffron to the very center with my sponge dauber, along with the Cameo Coral.
8. Refold the petals down, and dab glue on the underside. Fold the petals down and hold for several seconds until the glue adheres.

9. Snip the remaining two-petal piece in half. You will adhere these pieces to the back of the flower between the three lower petals. Just a freckle-size dot of glue and a bit of finger pressure is all that is needed. Find your flower-center piece and ink the edges (I used So Saffron carstock, and inked with Saffron and Caramel ink), then dot in details (I used a Cocoa marker for the dots). Glue flower-center to your flower.
10. Fine-tune the shape of your leaves with scissors, then add veins and details with a marker.
11. Cut a slim stem from a scrap of cardstock the same color as your leaves. Assemble your flower.
12. Add the flower to a card or scrapbook page!

Thanks for visiting!